Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon exposure in an artificial shooting target factory: Assessment of 1-hydroxypyrene urinary excretion as a biological indicator of exposure

Five representative workers and two external observers were monitored by pe rsonal air and urinary 1-hydroxypyrene (PyOH) sampling for a four-shift wor king week in an artificial shooting target factor. The targets (clay pigeon s), are made from petroleum pitch and molded at 190 C, No respirator! prote ctive mask Has worn, Atmospheric concentrations of pyrene and benzo (a) pyr ene (BaP) ranged from 0.66 to 5.05 mu g/m(3) and 0.037 to 0.270 mu g/m(3) r espectively with a mean pyrene/BaP ratio of about 20 and a correlation r = 0,51, Maximum PI OH urinary excretion ranged from 1.84 to 10.9 mu mol/molCr eat. This occurred at the postshift for the observers but often appeared la ter for workers: up to 10.75 h for the person with the apparently! highest dermal exposure, The apparent PyOH excretion half lives ranged from 1.9 to 12.5 h with an arithmetic mean of 6.1 h, All these data were confirmed bg a dditional measurements taken over a,weekend after the postshift. The correl ation between atmospheric pyrene and urinary PyOH concentrations (increase or er the shift) was Door (r = 0,37), It improved greatly (r = 0.74) if the amount of pyrene inhaled over the shift and the corresponding amount of Py OH excreted were considered, The ratio of urinary excreted PyOH to the pyre ne inhaled dose (with assumed retention of 100%), ranged from 0.18 to 0.70 (arithmetic mean = 0.34). This suggests that the respirator! tract is the m ain entrance route for pyrene (apart from the worker who handled crude targ ets without gloves). (C) 2000 British Occupational Hygiene Society. Publish ed by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.